‘It simply consists in the existence of a previous marriage. Mr. Rochester has a wife now living.’
My nerves vibrated to those low-spoken words as they
had never vibrated to thunder—my blood felt their subtle
violence as it had never felt frost or fire; but I was
collected, and in no danger of swooning. I looked at Mr. Rochester: I made him look at me. His whole face was
colourless rock: his eye was both spark and flint. He
disavowed nothing: he seemed as if he would defy all
things. Without speaking, without smiling, without
seeming to recognise in me a human being, he only
twined my waist with his arm and riveted me to his side.
‘Who are you?’ he asked of the intruder.
‘My name is Briggs, a solicitor of—Street, London.’ ‘And you would thrust on me a wife?’
‘I would remind you of your lady’s existence, sir,
which the law recognises, if you do not.’
‘Favour me with an account of her—with her name,
her parentage, her place of abode.’
‘Certainly.’ Mr. Briggs calmly took a paper from his
pocket, and read out in a sort of official, nasal voice:-
‘‘I affirm and can prove that on the 20th of October A.D.—(a date of fifteen years back), Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Thornfield Hall, in the county of -, and of Ferndean Manor, in -shire, England, was married to my sister, Bertha Antoinetta Mason, daughter of Jonas Mason, merchant, and of Antoinetta his wife, a Creole, at— church, Spanish Town, Jamaica. The record of the marriage will be found in the register of that church—a copy of it is now in my possession. Signed, Richard Mason.’’
Why I chose this excerpt:
This story is about a women named Jane Eyre (obviously) and her life. It's not about any crazy adventures or fierce battles between foes, it's simply the life of Jane Eyre. It follows Jane, through her life chronologically, with some gaps in between. This makes the book extremely boring at times, because life, especially other people's lives, can be super uninteresting. With that said, Jane's life is wretched. From her wicked Aunt to strict schooling, her childhood is nonexistent or worse. Her adult life is an improvement, but marginal. She falls in love with her "master" (her boss man) and he with her, although he courted her with an unique strategy to say the least. When the two try to marry, they are interrupted by a man who has proof that Mr. Rochester is married to another women. Eventually Mr. Rochester tracks her down and they live "happily ever after" but most of the book is pretty depressing.
The marriage, plot twisting scene is depicted above. But I chose this scene not for it's effect on the plot but to exemplify a tragic characteristic of Jane Eyre. Jane allows things to happen to her. She fights back and argues with very little throughout the entire book. In this scene, for example, her wedding (which she was very excited for) was cut off and deemed invalid by two complete strangers (At least to her. Technically she does know Mr. Mason, but that doesn't count), yet despite this the most action she takes to intervene with the problem is that she "made Mr. Rochester look at" her. This inaction, taken by Jane is a reoccurring thing and I believe leads to many of her conflicts throughout the book and has a large effect on the plot which is why I brought it up for this question.
I also chose to reveal this thought because I believe it speaks to one of the main ideas of this story. Life happens, and overall it pretty much stinks. So you can not stand by idle and watch it slip away as Jane does. She lives a horrible life, so learn from her and step up to improve your own life.
‘My name is Briggs, a solicitor of—Street, London.’ ‘And you would thrust on me a wife?’
‘I would remind you of your lady’s existence, sir,
which the law recognises, if you do not.’
‘Favour me with an account of her—with her name,
her parentage, her place of abode.’
‘Certainly.’ Mr. Briggs calmly took a paper from his
pocket, and read out in a sort of official, nasal voice:-
‘‘I affirm and can prove that on the 20th of October A.D.—(a date of fifteen years back), Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Thornfield Hall, in the county of -, and of Ferndean Manor, in -shire, England, was married to my sister, Bertha Antoinetta Mason, daughter of Jonas Mason, merchant, and of Antoinetta his wife, a Creole, at— church, Spanish Town, Jamaica. The record of the marriage will be found in the register of that church—a copy of it is now in my possession. Signed, Richard Mason.’’
Why I chose this excerpt:
This story is about a women named Jane Eyre (obviously) and her life. It's not about any crazy adventures or fierce battles between foes, it's simply the life of Jane Eyre. It follows Jane, through her life chronologically, with some gaps in between. This makes the book extremely boring at times, because life, especially other people's lives, can be super uninteresting. With that said, Jane's life is wretched. From her wicked Aunt to strict schooling, her childhood is nonexistent or worse. Her adult life is an improvement, but marginal. She falls in love with her "master" (her boss man) and he with her, although he courted her with an unique strategy to say the least. When the two try to marry, they are interrupted by a man who has proof that Mr. Rochester is married to another women. Eventually Mr. Rochester tracks her down and they live "happily ever after" but most of the book is pretty depressing.
The marriage, plot twisting scene is depicted above. But I chose this scene not for it's effect on the plot but to exemplify a tragic characteristic of Jane Eyre. Jane allows things to happen to her. She fights back and argues with very little throughout the entire book. In this scene, for example, her wedding (which she was very excited for) was cut off and deemed invalid by two complete strangers (At least to her. Technically she does know Mr. Mason, but that doesn't count), yet despite this the most action she takes to intervene with the problem is that she "made Mr. Rochester look at" her. This inaction, taken by Jane is a reoccurring thing and I believe leads to many of her conflicts throughout the book and has a large effect on the plot which is why I brought it up for this question.
I also chose to reveal this thought because I believe it speaks to one of the main ideas of this story. Life happens, and overall it pretty much stinks. So you can not stand by idle and watch it slip away as Jane does. She lives a horrible life, so learn from her and step up to improve your own life.
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